Giving Students CHOICES

“The major aim of schooling is to enable students to become the architects of their own education so that they can invent themselves during the course of their lives.” — Elliot Eisner

Part of our school goal at a our school is to “develop each student’s unique talents and interests”. Three years ago, the previous principal and I , along with our School Planning Council (parents) and Staff, decided to try to tap into the curiosity of our students and the strengths and passions of our staff.

Wednesday afternoons at Kent school are often the most exciting for our students as this is when they get to participate in an activity called CHOICES. Three times a year (once per term) for six weeks, all Kent students get to choose one of many options of learning activities. Staff are encouraged to offer an activity in an area of their passion and the hope is that the combination of teacher passion and student curiosity will create learning opportunities that will drive interest and confidence in learning. The activities that the staff have offered over the past 3 years has been nothing short of amazing. Here are a few examples:

Flag football

Softball

Ball Hockey

Cross-Country Running

Basketball

Mini Hockey

Soccer

Track and Field

Sketching

Painting

Hip Hop Dance

Crafts

Spool Knitting

First Nation Drumming

First Nation Dancing

First Nation Crafts

Legends and Stories

First Nation Carving

Knights and Castles

Odyssey of the Mind

Literacy Circles

Creative Writing

Theatre games

Improv

Pirates!

Combustion Engines

Build It! Construction

Insects!

Crime Scene Investigation

Geology Rocks!

Scrapbooking

Gardening

Mystery Books

Website Design

Choir

Video Production

PowerPoint Cartoons

Hockey Pool 101

Baking

Pre-school helpers

Puppetry

Flower Power!

Gym games

Math Challenges

Poetry

Leadership

Board Games Strategies

Chess

Some comments from parents:

Crime Scene Investigation

“Wednesdays are my favourite day… I don’t ever have to ask my child how school went… he just tells me!” – JH

“CHOICES has encouraged my child to try new things and take risks. Through CHOICES, my daughter has found a new love of writing!” – KS

“My son hardly slept night because he was so excited for CHOICES”. – CK

A final comment from a student sums it up:

“I wish CHOICES was every day! I love Kent School!” – Kaden

During CHOICES, there are rarely any behaviour concerns and you never hear the question. “is this for marks?”. When students are given the autonomy to choose a learning activity and teachers are given the freedom to teach an area in which they are passionate, a true love of learning results.

Thank you to the staff of Kent School who have demonstrated inspirational effort to make CHOICES such a powerful, authentic learning experience for our students.

For more conversations around student learning, please visit the Wejr Board blog and follow me on Twitter.

Love it Chris. I remember when I came to visit your school in October how proud you were when your toured me around of the many activities that kids could participate in. The garden was simply amazing! There was a sparkle in your eyes as you were describing the many cool things that students could participate in. Why is it that many educators feel they have to have all the control when it comes to what students learn? The CHOICES idea solidifies for me the power in simply letting students (and teachers) choose what they feel passionate about doing in this learning block on these days. A great idea for a great school.

How cool! THIS is mulitple intelligence theory in living colour! I love it.

I bet your absentee rates are way down on Wednesdays 🙂

Did you and staff discuss including parents as CHOICE leaders, or more expert students? I can see pros and cons there. I also love all the First Nations options, and how they’re available for all kiddos.

Funny you bring that up because we had a teacher that did her master’s research on multiple intelligences and she was a huge supporter of CHOICES.

We have had a student come back and teach First Nation drumming – very powerful. Also, I have sent out messages for parents to come and teach CHOICES but have not heard back yet. One wants to do cool science experiments/discovery but works at that time.

Great question… so an example is that CHOICES is going on right now – January 5, 12, 19, 26, and then 2 Wednesdays in February. We did this in Oct-Nov and we will do it in Apr-May as well. When CHOICES is not going on, teachers do review sessions, catch up learning, and engaging activities for kids.

Chris,
Thank you for detailing your CHOICES program for us! We designed a master schedule to include an “activity period” to attempt to include some of these types of experiences for students, but it definitely needs tweaking. Your school’s program has inspired me to take another look at our schedule and see if we can build more of these important learning opportunities into our days! When I taught at a middle school, our elective periods were some of the most enjoyable parts of the day! I joined in with students to experience everything from Tae-bo to scrapbooking to a class that discussed the world of Harry Potter! If our goal is to have students find and develop their passions, then providing these important choices and ownership in their learning experiences is a must.

This is amazing – and there is something extra special about having a student come back and teach. It reminds me of my university experience with the Tufts University ex college http://www.excollege.tufts.edu/, but so more important with young kids!

Hoping you get parents to teach!

February 3, 2011

JoAnn Jacobs said:

Chris,
Not only is this amazing it is postive for both students and teachers. Students have choice, which is so important even for our youngest learners. Teachers have the opportunity to share another side of themselves, which helps to build postive relationships. Thanks so much for sharing.
JoAnnJ68

This sounds amazing! What a great opportunity for the students, their families, and the staff! What an amazing staff you must have to be willing and able to do this with the students! I’m very impressed and would love to learn more!

Chris,
What a wonderful opportunity for your students! No wonder the students feel energized and telling their parents about what they learned each Wednesday. I would love to do this weekly or more often with my students. We have been doing #GeniusHour on occasion (where I saw a tweet about this post). Your CHOICES program is systemic, with so many teachers, and even an alum, participating in leading the CHOICES! Wonderful! Thanks for providing the kind of leadership that so many of us long for!

[…] Focusing on student interests, strengths and passions Too often we place all the emphasis on the deficits of our students and staff. The previous principal of Kent, Roxanne Watson, helped to show me the powerful shift that occurs when we start with strengths. One of the successful initiatives that we have had at Kent for the past 6 years is the Choices Program that provides the opportunity for teachers to teach in an area of their passion and for students to choose to learn in an area of interest or passion. Kent has a tradition of strong athletics, music, Aboriginal culture with dedicated staff that support this each year. Honouring A Student’s Strength: The Story of Daniel and Giving Students Choices […]